Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/479

 rock, or an artery was severed and the blood ran white as milk, or the cart which was to carry the traduced but innocent official to his execution could not be moved an inch, even by seven yoke of oxen, until the superscription "traitor" was changed to that of " patriot."

These are but a few of the standard models, and in examining them we find that they are all highly exaggerated cases, the inference apparently being that the greater includes the less, and that if boys and girls, youths and maidens, men and women, acted with virtue and discretion under these extreme circumstances, how much more should the reader do so under less trying conditions. But the result is that, as Confucianism proposes no adequate motive for such altruistic conduct and provides no adequate punishment for delinquency, the stories are held in a sort of contemptuous tolerance without the least attempt to profit by them or to apply them to actual conduct. This tendency is well illustrated in another phase of Korean life. When asked why his people do not try to emulate the example of the West in industrial achievements, the Korean points to the distant past and cites the case of Yi Sun-sin, who made the first iron-clad war-ship mentioned in history; and he actually believes Korea has beaten the world, though Korea to-day does not possess even a single fourth-class gunboat. Even so they point to these fantastic tales to illustrate the tone of Korean society, when, in truth, these principles are as obsolete as the once famous tortoise boat.

It should be noted that while the models given in the " Five Rules of Conduct " are mostly from the Chinese, yet a vast number of the tales which are based on these and which pass from mouth to mouth, are purely Korean in their setting. The Confucian imprint is there, but translated into terms of Korean life and feeling.

I have already hinted that the more recondite and esoteric ideas of Confucianism are entirely waved aside and only the practical application is brought to the fore. It is to this fact